Bionic Cooling Skin for Infected Wound Healing.

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Wound Healing Research
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Infected wounds present significant clinical challenges, often leading to delayed healing and severe complications.
• Current wound dressings rarely integrate comprehensive protective, comfortable, and antibacterial functionalities.
• Effective management of infected wounds is crucial for preventing adverse health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an innovative bionic cooling skin for enhanced infected wound management.
• To create a wound dressing with integrated antibacterial properties and a cooling effect.
• To investigate the wound healing mechanisms promoted by the novel dressing.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a hierarchical nanofiber-based bionic skin using solvent welding technology.
• Integration of single-sided metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for visible light-responsive reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.
• Characterization of mechanical properties, air/moisture permeability, and thermal regulation capabilities.

Main Results:

• The bionic skin demonstrated excellent mimicry of natural skin's mechanical properties (σmax = 21.6 MPa; εmax = 54%) and high permeability.
• The dressing exhibited effective antibacterial activity through ROS generation, confirmed by gene analysis of wound healing.
• A significant reduction of 4°C in local wound temperature was observed under sunlight exposure due to high mid-infrared emissivity.

Conclusions:

• The developed bionic cooling skin offers a promising solution for infected wound management.
• This advanced dressing integrates superior protective, antibacterial, and thermal regulation functions.
• The study advances wound care strategies and biomedical material design for improved healing efficacy and patient comfort.